There is an increasingly large demand for meals that are simple to prepare and for which the preparation time is short. Sales of convenience foods or ready meals are increasing. These are sold in disposable packages and are adapted either to be eaten directly without heating, such as sushi, or to be heated before eaten.
Most ready meals are contained in a disposable package usually consisting of a tray manufactured from cardboard, metal or a plastic material with a thin, transparent plastic film serving as a lid. A plurality of different heating methods is available, depending on the packaging material. The most common tray material for single portion ready meals is plastic or paper, which allows the meal to be heated in a microwave oven. It is also possible to use a conventional oven or to place the package in hot water. The lid of the package is removed either before or after heating. The meal can be eaten directly from the pack when heated or it is possible to transfer the food from the package to a plate. During a transfer of the food, the presentation of the meal is destroyed and the food content will inevitable mix. If the food is frozen, it may be possible to transfer the food to a plate prior to heating without too much problems, but for a non-frozen meal, the transfer of food is not practical.
One way of solving the problem with the food mixing is to use a tray having different sections divided with dividing walls. Such a tray is manufactured in a single piece using a specific moulding tool or pressing tool. It is difficult to eat directly from such a tray, but the food can be transferred in a more controlled, however time consuming, way. Another disadvantage of such a package is that the different sections are fixed in size. Depending on the prepared meals, different packages may thus be needed for each type of meal.
One known package is described in WO 2004/045970 A1, in which the package is subdivided into different sections which are adapted to preserve different pressures during heating, and consequently will allow different temperatures in the different sections.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,708,086 A describes a package which is subdivided into different sections, which is adapted to be inverted after heating and having a specific lid acting as a plate.
WO 2006/115457 describes a food package in which the food is transferred to a plate by placing the package over a plate and then by removing the bottom part of the package. The food can in this way be transferred to the serving surface of the plate without any mixing of the food content. The ready meal will thereby retain the same orientation as it had before the transfer of the food. Some foods, such as sauce, may still intermix some with the other foods.
There may thus be a need for separating different foods in such a package, and also to allow for a different amount of heating of the different foods. There is thus still room for an improved food package.